Queen Mary’s College was proud to enter four teams again this year for the North Hampshire Rotary Technology Tournament. 

What is the North Hampshire Rotary Technology Tournament?

The North Hampshire Rotary Technology Tournament is an engineering challenge with teams of four competing against other schools and colleges from Winchester, Alton and Basingstoke. This year’s competition was the biggest of its 16-year history, with 21 teams drawn from schools and colleges across the region.

What was the challenge this year?

This year, groups were challenged  to build a space capsule launcher that would fire the ‘capsule’ to a height of over 3 metres and parachute it safely back to Earth. This was a technical challenge, with the ‘capsule’ required to pass through a ring 1 m above the launch platform. The projection force was produced by suspending the launch pad from a wooden framework by elastic bands.  

Team QMC’s successes

All four QMC teams were successful in constructing a working model within the allotted time, though sadly, only one of the teams managed an effective launch with the capsule successfully clearing the launch pad and passing through the hoop to achieve the required height.  

One of the QMC teams, consisting of Connor Stephens, Danny Owen, Toby Froud and Tharusha Gardi, was awarded a certificate of merit for their portfolio documenting the development of their design and how the team had shared the roles and contributed to the project. 

Another QMC team, consisting of James Gibson, Jack Heaton, James Wise and Andre Trindade, took a creditable 3rd place for best execution in the performance trials for the Advanced Class. 

Prizes were awarded by a team of judges from the Basingstoke and Loddon Valley Rotary Club, who were professional engineers. They praised the efforts and ingenuity of all of the teams. 

The winning teams were presented trophies by the Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane. 

An Engaging and Insightful Experience 

All of our teams expressed how much they enjoyed the day, although there was disappointment that they had not come away with the trophy this time around. QMC will be back next year to try and reclaim the mantle of engineering champions. In the meantime, they have had a hugely valuable opportunity to experience the thrill of design and engineering creativity in practice!